BBC news 2009-12-03 加文本

1.Robert Gates, the defense secretary insisted that decisions would be made based on the conditions on the ground.

insist虚拟语气

insist用法：

I. 表示“坚持说；坚决认为(多与别人的观点不同)”，接that从句(从句的动作多为已发生之事)，从句使用陈述语气。如：

　　She insisted that he was wrong.

　　她坚持认为他错了。

　　II. 表示“坚决主张；坚持要求”，接that从句(从句的动作为将要发生之事)，谓语多为 should型的虚拟语气，即：主语+ should(可省略)+动词原形。如：

　　He insisted that we (should) accept these gifts.

　　他一定要我们收下这些礼物。

　　Jane insisted that he be present.

　　简坚持要他出席。

　　还可用于“insist on / upon + 名词或代词或 动词-ing形式”结构中。如：

　　He insisted on / upon my going with him.

　　他坚持要我跟他一起去。(= He insisted that I [should] go with him.)

　　I insist on seeing it. 我一定要见到它。(= I insist that I see it.)

　　Ⅲ. if you insist 常用于口语中，表示勉强同意。如：

　　All right, I’ll do it, if you insist.

　　好吧，如果你一定要我干这事，我就去干。

2. About 50 senior Nigerian politicians had issued a statement saying the president’s illness left a dangerous vacuum with no one in charge of the affairs of state.

with做状语

(1)She came into the room，with her nose red because of cold.（with+名词+形容词，作伴随状语）

(2)With the meal over ， we all went home.（with+名词+副词，作时间状语）

(3)The master was walking up and down with the ruler under his arm。（with+名词+介词短语，作伴随状语。） The teacher entered the classroom with a book in his hand.

(4)He lay in the dark empty house，with not a man ，woman or child to say he was kind to me.（with+名词+不定式，作伴随状语）

He could not finish it without me to help him.（without+代词 +不定式，作条件状语）

(5)She fell asleep with the light burning.（with+名词+现在分词 ，作伴随状语）

(6)Without anything left in the cupboard， she went out to get something to eat.（without+代词+过去分词，作为原因状语）

3.President Alvaro Uribe compared Venezuela’s trade restrictions to Washington’s trade embargo in Cuba.

compare to和compare with区别

compare to 和 compare with英语在使用当中可以对于我们而言相差不大，但其实意思上区别很大。这里涉及到语言的使用习惯、感知能力

1)compare…with意为“把……与……相比”，侧重指两者间的区别。

如：Compare this car with that one, and you will find the differences between them．
把这辆汽车与那辆汽车相比较，你就会发现它们之间的区别。

2)compare…to…意为“把……比作……”，着重注意两者间的相似点。

如：
This song compares our country to a big family．这首歌把我们的国家比作一个大家庭。

3)compare既可以单独用作及物动词，也可用作不及物动词。用作不及物动词时，以compare with…形式出现，表示“与……相比”。

如：
Living here can't compare with living in Shanghai．在这儿生活不能和在上海（生活）相比。

If you compare the two words, you can tell the difference between them.
如果你比较这两个单词，你就会辨别出它们之间的不同。

4)compared with…和compared to…都可用作状语，意义基本相同，可互换。如：

Compared to/with him, you are lucky.       与他相比，你是幸运的。
It was a small town then, compared to/with what it is now.  和现在比起来，那时它还是个小镇。